Tag - cd-review

 
 

CD REVIEW

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2018
As two rule breakers gave the Japanese film world hope in 2018, elsewhere eyes turned to China
The Japanese movie business is something like a restaurant where new cooks and waiters arrive as old ones retire or die, but the menu remains much the same, decade after decade.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 19, 2018
TV in 2018: Progressive voices and the enduring charm of ‘Terrace House’
In the English-speaking world, Japanese TV in 2018 was celebrated for how boring it could get. But it was anything but domestically, where viewers questioned norms and helped nudge forward programs with progressive politics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 18, 2018
Music in 2018: Saying goodbye to Heisei with 'U.S.A.'
The final full year of the Heisei Era was one of the most discombobulating for Japanese music this decade. Nostalgia for the soon-to-end era clashed with efforts to figure out where J-pop goes moving forward. Tunes covered in cobwebs suddenly became the soundtrack for viral dances on trendy video apps.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 18, 2018
YouTube in 2018: Controversy, contributors and (allegedly) child-friendly content
YouTube in Japan had an identity crisis in 2018. The video-sharing site only grew in importance this year, as the top creators associated with the platform achieved acceptance by the country's mainstream media gatekeepers while famous names migrated over.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2018
Japan ranks second in new development index that puts quality and quantity of life before wealth
Japan is the second-best place in the world in terms of human development, with Hong Kong in first place and Iceland in third, according to a new index called the Human Life Indicator that is supposed to be simpler and more accurate than the U.N. Human Development Index.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Dec 16, 2018
Osaka, Nishikori carried flag for Japanese tennis in '18
With Naomi Osaka enjoying a breakthrough campaign in 2018 and Kei Nishikori making a strong comeback from a career-threatening injury, the past season proved fruitful for emerging tennis powerhouse Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 15, 2018
Namie Amuro tops Nikkei Marketing Journal's list of 2018's most popular products and services
Described in its choice for the year's yokozuna (grand champion) as dasa-kakoyosa — something that's behind the times, but cool nonetheless — entertainer Namie Amuro appeared at the top of the Nikkei Marketing Journal's 48th annual Hitto Shohin Banzuke (ranking of hit products) on Dec. 5.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 13, 2018
Anime in 2018 saw serious cash but no surprise hits
What do a 24-year-old child detective, a group of seriously laid-back campers and anthropomorphic blood cells have in common? 2018, that's what.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 12, 2018
In 2018, art came via many anniversaries in Japan
This year saw a lot of anniversaries in Japan. It was 1868 when Crown Prince Mutsuhito became the Emperor Meiji, the official policy of national isolation ended and the country was set on a course to become a modern industrialized nation-state. This birthday seems like it could have been a great time to kick back and have a major celebration in commemoration of the end of feudalism and the advent of a new age of learning. However, as the prevailing narrative of Japan's transition into modernity is one in which it was forced into opening to the West and had to lose something of its traditional identity in order to avoid becoming a colonial territory, the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration went by without much festivity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 12, 2018
Shared spaces, locally produced goods and everyday objects
Making physical connections with people, whether via large-scale events and spaces or design concepts, and a continued celebration of traditional crafts, appeared to be a key direction for design in Japan this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018
2018 was the year in Japan that saw the stage sing, while contemporary drama barely made a squeak
Musicals have flourished in 2018, with many young stars also helping to sell out straight plays in which they appeared. However, the contemporary drama scene in Japan has been unusually quiet this year in terms of new works and writers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 11, 2018
While ballet reigned supreme, a range of dance delighted fans in 2018
For a dance-loving country like Japan, every year brings delight in the variety of performances on offer, but the depth and breadth of 2018 on stage has been particularly grand for fans across a wide range of genres and movements.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2018
Tokyo District Court holds first hearing on expats' right to vote on Supreme Court justices
Five Japanese living abroad claimed at the Tokyo District Court on Monday that their inability to participate in national reviews of Supreme Court justices was unconstitutional.
JAPAN
May 21, 2018
Former Financial Times Tokyo bureau chief Charles Smith dies at 82
Charles Smith, who served as Tokyo bureau chief of the Financial Times in the 1970s and of the Far East Economic Review in the 1980s, passed away at the age of 82 Friday of acute respiratory failure, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2018
A new world, a new Nuclear Posture Review
The world is more dangerous than it has been for a long time, but there are justifiable concerns that the Trump administration's nuclear weapons policy could magnify dangers, not reduce them.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 4, 2018
Pentagon mistakenly labels Taiwan as part of China in key nuclear policy document
The U.S. Department of Defense temporarily removed and reposted its new Nuclear Posture Review report from its website after mistakenly labeling Taiwan as part of mainland China — the latest lapse by the Trump administration involving the sensitive issue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 13, 2018
Michael Booth returns with 'The Meaning of Rice'
Michael Booth is back. And once again with his family in tow. The British food writer first came to Japan with his Danish wife and two sons in 2008 in a bid to learn more about Japan and its food culture in a trip that took them from Hokkaido to Okinawa in three months. Booth turned their foodie adventure into the best-selling book "Sushi and Beyond." NHK subsequently turned the book into an animation that's about as entertaining as watching rice ferment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 31, 2017
20 Questions: The best answers of 2017
What brought you to Japan? I came here for the magic. Osaka is home to some of the best close-up magicians in the world.
Japan Times
SPORTS
Dec 28, 2017
The top sports stories of 2017
The Japan Times newsroom selected these domestic sports stories as the most important of 2017.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2017
The top business news stories of 2017
The Japan Times newsroom selected these economy and technology stories as the most important of 2017.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree